KPMG Auditors Working From Home During a Pandemic Was a Major Inconvenience For One CEO
From the Wall Street Journal: [Emerson Electric CEO David Farr] had just gotten off the phone with KPMG LLC, Emerson’s auditors since 1938, and he was steaming. The problem: It was June and they were still working from home. “Look. I make s—, and you can’t tell me how I’m making s— when you’re sitting […]
EY Employees Don’t Have to Work with Pants On Until January 2021 at the Earliest
We meant to post this a few weeks ago, but with the layoffs, angry letters about the layoffs, FY 2020 global revenues, and new partner promotions at EY taking up a lot of our time of late, this got put on the back burner. Thanks to a source, here is the return-to-the-office update from Jay […]
KPMG Employees Won’t Be Returning to the Office Anytime Soon
By the time KPMGers in the U.S. are finally allowed to leave their home offices to get reacquainted with their cubicles, fashion rules stipulate they won’t be able to wear white to work. The new KPMG leadership team sent a message to employees on July 13 that maybe they’ll be able to return to their […]
What Are You Guys Drinking While Working From Home?
I don’t know why y’all are so eager to get back to the office because isn’t it better to be drinking a gin and tonic, sipping whiskey, or downing your favorite IPA while staring blankly at a spreadsheet at home than doing so while having a cup of coffee, Ice Mountain bottled water, or Red […]
PwC Global Chairman Bob Moritz’s Work-From-Home Setup: An iPad, Laptop, No Monitors, Notepads Galore
BoMo took to IG yesterday to show PwCers his work-from-home battlestation, and to be honest, it’s more befitting of a first-year making $55,000 than the global chairman of the second-largest accounting firm in the world. In fact, every person who has recently posted their WFH setup on Reddit has a snazzier workspace than BoMo. To […]
Number of the Day: 124%
Because a good deal of you guys are now working from home, accountants contributed to VPN usage in the U.S. increasing 124% between March 9 and March 22, according to data from Atlas VPN. From March 16 to March 22, VPN usage increase 71%. During the last two weeks, VPN usage in the US increased […]
Tips For Working From Home From Experts In the No-Pants Lifestyle
Hi there, Going Concern faithful. How is everyone? Hanging in there? I hope so. So look. Bramwell and I realized the other day that you guys new to regular work from home (WFH) — which is pretty much most of you — might need some tips on how to stay sane. Not that either of […]
COVID-19 Is Not the Only Virus One Small Accounting Firm Owner Is Worried About
This came through the Help line the other night, and because Open Items has been a barren wasteland since Caleb left nearly two years ago, I thought I’d post it here to see if we could help this person out. I’m a retired CPA who’s working during tax season for a small, local practitioner. She […]
Tracker: These Public Accounting Firms Are In Mandatory Work-From-Home Mode
Did you ever think you’d see the day that something would cause some of the largest public accounting firms in the nation to temporarily close their offices and force everyone to work from home? I didn’t, but thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, here we are. Based on tips we’ve received, as well as scanning Twitter […]
Get Off Nintendo Switch and Earn Some CPE While You’re Working From Home
If you work for any of the 40 accounting firms we’ve confirmed are on mandatory work-from-home policies as of publication time, chances are you won’t be attending professional conferences anytime soon. Lucky for you our friends at Workiva have set up a virtual, two-day conference (that you can score CPE for attending!) that kicks off […]
Marcum Temporarily Going to 40-Hour Workweek, Except For You New York City Folks Who Are Not In Tax
If you need another example of why public accounting firms get a bad rap for being more concerned about dollar signs and clients than their employees, that they’d rather their capital market servants be billable than healthy—both physically and mentally—look no further than this email sent to Marcum’s New York City employees on March 19 […]
Even the PCAOB Is Now Hunkering Down at Home
This was just emailed to us by the PCAOB and has since been posted to its website. In case you haven’t heard yet, the PCAOB is going the mandatory work-from-home route too, effective immediately. The message says: The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) is providing the following update on our current operations in light […]
Whaddaya Know, KPMG Is Going Full-On Work From Home Too
Honestly, I didn’t think we’d get an announcement until later this morning from KPMG about going mandatory work from home due to the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. But at around 10:45 p.m. CT Monday night, this message came in through the tipline: Kpmg has announced mandatory work from home starting 3/18 They r shutting […]
Deloitte CEO Eventually Sent Out the Mandatory Work-From-Home Email
First it was EY, then it was PwC, now Deloitte has told its U.S. staff not to bother coming to the office for a while because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But unlike EY and PwC, which will be full-on remote work beginning tomorrow, Green Dotters will have to wait until Wednesday. Thanks to a tipster, […]
EY, PwC Jumping On the Mandatory Work-From-Home Bandwagon Due to COVID-19
Thanks to a tipster, here’s the email EY U.S. Chair Kelly Grier sent to all EYers Sunday evening regarding where they’ll be working for the foreseeable future: I’m reaching out this evening to express my recognition and concern for the evolving situation involving COVID-19 and the complexity and uncertainty it’s causing across our daily lives. […]
RSM US Joins the Mandatory Work-From-Home Party
Today’s been one of the most crazy and, in my opinion, unprecedented days we’ve ever seen covering public accounting, where three of the Big 4 and a slew of other firms are ditching their U.S. offices and going strictly remote work for the time being because of COVID-19. A tipster let us know this evening […]
Grant Thornton Canada Is Totally Giving Its Hourly Employees the Shaft
Hey, accounting firm CEOs, listen up. A global pandemic is not the time to be screwing your employees—salaried and hourly—out of pay and/or their PTO time. Grant Thornton in the U.S. is seemingly taking care of all of its employees as the firm has transitioned to all remote work until at least the end of […]
Marcum Is Finally Taking This COVID-19 Thing Seriously (At Least For This Week)
You can add Marcum to the ever-growing list of accounting firms that are temporarily going all remote because of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. But of course not until tomorrow; there’s a tax deadline to wrap up first. A tipster sent us the email Marcum Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Weiner sent to his capital […]
Grant Thornton Is Going All In On Working From Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic
While many accounting firms are “empowering” and “encouraging” their employees to work from home during the coronavirus outbreak, but still ultimately leaving it up to them to make that decision, Grant Thornton employees had that decision made for them yesterday. A tipster sent us this message that all GTers received from CEO Brad Preber on […]
Hurricane Irene Watch: Deloitte Edition
As you may have heard, there’s a bit of a storm coming to the east coast. Since the DC area got the brunt of the earthquake, those in charge of the weather figured the Northeast got a bit short-changed in the natural disaster department. As is typical in these situations, firm leadership sends out some talking points to make sure everyone knows what to do in case worst happens (e.g. client are unable to pay, FOBs stop working). Deloitte’s message came out late yesterday and our tipster was not impressed:
Here’s our token disaster update from Uncle D. Not even one reference to being careful and staying safe??? Our disaster plans include taking work home with us and backing up our laptops in case we’re killed. That’s a new low, even for the Big 4.
Northeast Update
Hurricane Irene
To all Northeast professionals:
As you are likely aware, Hurricane Irene is gaining momentum and officials have issued watches for the Northeast area starting on Saturday, August 27.
This email contains important information for you to do and consider:
· While our office is currently scheduled to be open on Monday, use your own judgment regarding your personal safety and coordinate with your direct Supervisor or Manager to advise them of your plans.
· Take your laptop, related accessories, and any files that you may need home with you.
· Be sure to complete a back-up on your laptop prior to the weekend in case of any power outages.
· If you are in an office with a window, clear all articles from the window ledge and remove any boxes from the floor.
· If you are using an airport in the region, check your flight status before leaving for the airport. The Deloitte Travel Center [redacted] can help with any necessary re-scheduling.
· For ideas on making a family plan, visit Ready America, and go to the National Hurricane Center website for detailed storm updates.
We will continue to monitor the storm and its path over this weekend. If there is a change to our office’s status, we will issue an email before 6:00 a.m. Monday morning with further instructions.
Stay safe,
[redacted]
Northeast Regional Operations Leader
Well, “Stay safe” as a valediction could be understood as “be careful/be safe” but our tipster sure didn’t take it that way. If you find your firm’s Irene information email to be hysterical, indifferent or if your firm seems to be blowing the whole thing off, we’d love to see it. Send it our way.